NSA hacked Al-Jazeera and Russia’s Aeroflot – report

Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing revelations about US surveillance got a little creepier with the revelation that the National Security Agency hacked into Al-Jazeera TV’s encrypted e-mails, as well as Russian airline Aeroflot’s ticketing system.

According to the newspaper, hacking into Al-Jazeera’s protected
e-mails is considered no small feat in the US intelligence
community. Among other things, the Arab news network has been
known for broadcasting messages sent to the world by top Al-Qaeda
figures for more than a decade. A substantial number of Osama bin
Laden’s video broadcasts, from the 9/11 attacks onward, were
broadcast on Al-Jazeera. Bin Laden sometimes appeared in the
videos alongside his successor as Al-Qaeda leader, Ayman
al-Zawahiri, who is still at large.

One of the documents obtained by Der Spiegel refers to
information from March 2006, when the NSA’s Network Analysis
Center managed to gain access to e-mails from “interesting
targets” protected by Al-Jazeera. But the document also says
that NSA officials did not find its’ language analysis of the
e-mails particularly useful.

Both Aeroflot’s ticket reservation system and Al Jazeera’s
encrypted e-mails were deemed a “notable success,” the NSA
document reveals. The spy agency apparently considered both of
them as having a “high potential as sources of
intelligence.”

The documents seen by Der Spiegel did not reveal the complete
extent of the agency’s spying on Al-Jazeera’s journalists or
executives, however, or how long it went on. No documents
relating to the NSA spying on Al-Jazeera have previously come to
light.

As far as Aeroflot is concerned, the hacked reservation system
may not have been the last incident involving US spying on the
airline. While Snowden was staying at the transit area of
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, the Internet was awash with rumors
that he was going to catch an Aeroflot flight headed for Cuba.

In mid-July, an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Havana deviated
off course, FlightAware live flight tracking indicated. The news
sparked a rash of online speculation that Snowden may have been
aboard the flight.

The detour spawned speculation in the media that the aircraft may
have been trying to avoid entering US airspace. However, the
rumors were quickly dispelled, as it was discovered that
America’s eastern seaboard was undergoing some rough weather that
may have prompted the plane to change course.